


Happiness

by Shirohime



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dog Castiel (Supernatural), Dog Dean Winchester, Dog Sam Winchester, Dogs, Fluff, Gen, Healing, Human Gabriel, Implied/Referenced Abuse, John Winchester Being an Asshole, M/M, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 12:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13341303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shirohime/pseuds/Shirohime
Summary: Dean doesn't believe in happiness or good humans. So life takes its own way of showing him.OrThe one in which Dean and Sam need some rescuing.





	Happiness

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably medically not much accurate, I'm not a vet so please bear with me there.  
> I've had an itch for Dog!Au since a while so here's my birthing of a fic that's got little to no other point than toothrotting little worded images with a side of Dean being adorable and getting his boyfriend in a different way than usual.

He was terrified. 

People had come, he had heard them shouting in these loud voices of theirs. But he hadn't been able to see them. 

All he knew was that his hips pulsated with searing pain, the cold of the stone floor digging into his bones with a vice grip. 

He was so tired, in pain and _hungry._

Sammy was curled up shivering right next to him, they only had each other as a source of warmth; coats long ago thinned out from malnutrition leaving bald patches to the open air.

With a high whimper of hopelessness that refused to be stifled, Dean closed his eyes and shifted to curl up around the puppy, hiding his muzzle in soft light gold fur. 

Sleep however wasn't coming, mercy abandoning him, so Dean tried to rest up as much as he could before Master came and he had to protect the puppy again from madness swinging metal bars that cracked bones and dancing flames that burned whatever they touched. 

            ~

Tell-tale footsteps roused Dean far too soon, heavy boots on wooden tiles stumbling towards them. 

Ears flicking back in panic, Dean forced himself to get up - ignoring the blinding pain that had rendered his back legs useless for a few weeks now - and nudged Sammy awake to herd him away from the door as far as their metal chained collars would allow. 

Fearful whimpers left the puppy's throat but he didn't fight his friend, cowering behind Dean and pressing to the shadows in a fruitless attempt of making himself invisible. 

Dean huffed lowly, trying to not let his own fear stink through the air before he turned ; weary eyes dull and tired but growl menacing and warning as ever as sharp canines appeared. 

The light from outside was blinding, rendering both dogs with spots in their vision. 

Voices cut through the air, loud and many. Many more than just Master and Dean couldn't figure out who the hell these humans were.

Insecure, frightened and determined to die for Sammy should need be, he let out a warning bark that rumbled threatening through the room. 

The voices seemed to get even louder, none of them were familiar which Dean wasn't sure whether to be happy or petrified about. 

When the spots finally left his vision, he saw 3 humans coming closer, with leashes and sticks in their hands. 

He growled and backed away as much as he could, yelping in pain but not ready to let these strangers even close to his puppy.

They looked at him, moving slowly and lowering their voices. 

Dean understood "Good boy", "It's okay" and it put him into a frenzied panic, barking at them to stay the fuck away, remembering all the times Master would come and praise him just to push and stab metal rods wherever he could reach.

His barking drowned out the voices, his bones ached and he was so, so, so tired. 

Dean didn't even register the low whoosh of something flying through the air and pinching his flank. 

Within seconds, sleep dragged him under, numbing all and every pain with sweet mercy. 

 

            -               -               - 

Gabriel Novak had always been the odd one in his family. 

He didn't care for money and wealthy people's relationships - it was all tooth achingly fake and if he despised anything it was lies. 

So by the age of 25 he had taken his trust fund and left behind a life full of pretending and masked emotions. 

He changed his last name and bought a house in a little town up in the Rocky mountains and settled down into the life of a part time baker with no family. 

A year or so after he'd found his happiness in this quiet lifestyle, he found Castiel. 

The black furred mutt had captured Gabe's attention right away; according to the shelter lady (Jody or Jude or something) he had been found during the raid of an underground fighting ring. 

Castiel hadn't been a nice view, wounds not quite healed and scar tissue preventing fur to grow back especially around his neck. But Gabriel had taken one look at those sky blue eyes and knew this was his dog. 

Sure enough, shy Castiel was the best companion Gabriel could have asked for; the dog would listen to his endless stream of words and didn't seem to mind laying in his dog bed during the opening hours of Gabe's little bakery. 

The black mutt became the town's baker-dog, his gentleness and quiet attitude adored by parents and their children. 

Gabriel went into rescuing because of Cas. 

He'd seen how much the sweet dog had been through and it wrenched his heart to think there were still so many dogs being abused and abandoned. 

So he joined the local rescue group and began working on freeing and resocializing abused dogs, involving Cas as a sort of bridge to gain their trust back. 

Samandriel had been one of his latest cases, a very shy labrador mix who had only been able to be adopted thanks to Gabe and Cas' great work. Samandriel now lived with the librarian, a strict but gentle lady called Naomi. 

So, over the years Gabriel had seen a lot of horrific cases of animal abuse and neglect. He had his fair share of animals who died before they could arrive at the vet clinic and had seen enough owners who didn't seem to even recognize that animals were living creatures who needed affection, food and the right to live a great life. 

Nothing could have prepared him for the hell that was the John Winchester case. 

Neighbors had called in reporting dogs barking and yelping in apparently pain and knowing John as the black sheep of the town, soon Gabriel went out with Charlie and Ellen and papers permitting him to search the premises. 

What they found made Charlie throw up and even Ellen looked positively green around the nose. 

There were two dogs chained in the basement of John Winchester's house; a bigger German Shepherd and a young golden retriever from the looks of it, both in terrible conditions. 

The floor was stone, covered in urine and blood and vomit. The German Shepherd was snarling and growling at Gabriel and his team and seemed unable to stand up, hind legs twisted in unnatural ways and bleeding wounds all over his body. 

Both dogs were severely malnourished to a point were they barely had any fur left, rips highlighting stab wounds, some of which leaked pus.

They tried to calm the older dog who seemed downright mad from panic and was clearly protecting the other one who was whimpering and hiding in the shadows, not wanting to leave his friend's side. 

The darkness made it hard to see but it looked as though the metal collar had cut through the younger dog's skin, infection stinking up the room and fresh blood trailing down golden fur.

In the end, nothing worked on calming the older dog, making Ellen resort to tranquilizers as they were worried of the stress eventually killing the malnourished German Shepherd in front of them. 

Once the bigger dog was asleep, the golden retriever whimpered and yowled in fear but with a soothing voice and pieces of chicken, Gabriel managed to calm him down enough to touch the young dog's head and eventually get the leash on.

Whilst Ellen, Gabriel and Charlie carried the dogs into the van they had come in, Victor shot pictures of the basement for their report and attempted to get John lucid enough for an interrogation. 

The man however was so intoxicated that he only managed to slur out the names of the dogs before falling asleep in his chair.

Gabriel left Victor to deal with the man and climbed into the back with Sam and his still asleep friend, Dean. 

                   -                -                   - 

When he came back to be, the world was bright, loud and he was confused. 

Whimpering lowly, Dean tried to blink the world into focus but only succeeded partially. 

His head felt funny and all his limbs were so heavy it was easier to simply stay laying down.

Somewhere in his mind the worry for Sam startled itself awake and Dean yipped weakly, turning his head to search for the familiar gold fur as his body didn't seem to want to obey him. 

Soon enough, he had his face full of overly worried and happy puppy, who let out a litany of worried and anxious noises until Dean growled tired to get the other one to stop. 

Sam laid down obediently next to Dean and nuzzled into his friend. The puppy looked... Healthy. Healthier than Dean had ever seen him, he didn't reek of rotting flesh anymore and around his neck was something white and soft instead of the metal that usualy took that place. 

And even though he seemed anxious, Dean could feel it in his bones that it was not even close to the terror the puppy had felt back at Master's house. 

Dean licked his friend's head once before laying his own back onto his front paws, yawning in exhaustion. 

He felt Sammy lay his head onto his neck and huffed contently before drifting back off into sleep. 

      ~

It had been a while since Dean had woken up next to happy Sammy. They were in some sort of white room, it smelled like nothing most of the time and there only were two humans coming in to them. They got fed a lot more than Master ever gave them and one of the humans had brought them weird plastic things that Sammy tossed around. Dean himself didn't know what to do with them, he was very okay with the snuggly, soft and pink rabbit plushy, thank you very much. 

Firstly Dean had been very apprehensive and frightened of the humans coming in - one female and a male -, he had feared more pain and punishment for being alive as Master had always punished him for breathing. 

But slowly and with a lot of cheeseburgers, the man earned his trust. 

Sammy had been a bundle of sunshine, jumping around and getting his belly rubbed by both humans but it just was hard for Dean to forget the pain and fear he'd known since puppyhood. It wasn't like Sam had ever taken any beatings, Dean had made sure of that. 

He let the male - Gabriel - touch him sometimes but mostly only after being lured in with the delicious smell of burgers. 

It was still painful to get up but it hurt a lot less and his legs were of actual use once again, even though Dean limped and it was painful to stay for extended periods of time. 

Dean thought it looked funny how his hind legs were wrapped with something green but if it kept the pain away he wasn't going to complain. 

So yeah, things had been unbelievably awesome and both Sam's and his own fur was growing back wonderfully.

Then, one day, Gabriel opened the door to the white room and wasn't alone. 

Dean was on his paws in seconds, growling and snarling at the big black mutt standing calmly next to the male. 

Posturing himself between threat and Sammy, Dean had his ears pressed back flat to his skull in betrayal. 

Gabriel, that Bastard, laughed lowly before kneeling down with the mutt by his side and closed the door before turning to confused Sam and aggressive Dean. 

"Calm down, Dean-o", his voice was soothing and gentle, not haunting and joking like Master's had been at times, "this is my dog, Cas. He's not gonna hurt you two." 

Now Dean just was confused. Gabriel's voice was calming and so friendly but the black dog seemed very capable of hurting Sam and Dean didn't want that. 

For now he decided as long as Gabriel was there, nobody would get hurt. So Dean limped aside and into his dog bed, curling up around the pink rabbit and staring at the mutt. He knew he wasn't good to play with, legs stiff and aching, so he planned on simply watching the others interact with each other. 

Sam was bouncing and inviting play after he'd gone and made sure Dean was okay, trying to finally finally have someone to play with. 

Surprisingly, the mutt merely played tug war only a bit before leaving the puppy to it and sauntering over to Dean.

Dean growled lowly, not very keen on making new friends. 

However, the other dog just planted itself down comfortably next to Dean's bed and then... Licked Dean's nose?!

Completely thrown off in surprise, the German Shepherd sneezed and blinked into the calm blue eyes of the mutt, swearing there was a hint of amusement sparkling in them.

Dean just kept blinking in surprise. 

When Gabriel came to them with bits of burger, Dean had chosen to simply tolerate the mutt and his odd antics - like not even sniffing at Dean but instead downright penetrating said ones personal space and cuddling up to brown-black fur. 

    ~ 2 years later ~

Cas wasn't such a bad guy after all. Okay, he was weird with his lack of knowledge about personal space and it still pissed Dean off when the equally tall dog stole his pink rabbit to get him to play but Dean was also absolutely and unconditionally in love with the mutt. 

Sam, Cas and Gabe were his family now. 

And it was really nice. Way nicer than with Master.

Dean had his own blanket and bed, he had food and the pink rabbit and a fire in winter nights. 

He even had Cas who barely ever walked around without that obnoxious, half-torn squeaky bee Dean only didn't bury in the backyard because he loved his mutt. 

Sam had grown into real giant, all floppy ears and brown puppy eyes with shining gold fur and a tendency to sleep right on top of Gabriel at night (who soon learned that Sam was as stubborn as a moose and equally immovable).

Dean didn't need to wear the funny green wraps around his legs anymore and though walking wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, it wasn't painful and only got bad when it was cold outside. 

Cas kept teasing Dean about his maternal instincts, but what could he help it when there was someone who needed his help; someone he COULD help?

It was a good life now. 

With warm sunsets spent getting belly rubs and delicious burgers when Dean had been especially good (or had refrained from tearing the newspapers for a day). 

And Dean was happy. He never thought life could be this good, this blessed with annoying birds and rabbits (actual, life rabbits!) to smell and someone he could trust, someone who wouldn't hurt him or let anyone hurt him. Ever again.

 


End file.
